1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cushioning material for packing comprising an air bag made of heat-fusible laminated film which is divided in a form of rectangle and continuously connected in a foam of tube or mat.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to wrap a package or fill around a packed article, a cushioning material has been used which is made of an air bag (air-filled chamber) made of synthetic resin continuously connected in a form of tube or mat. As shown in FIG. 8, an example of the mat-shaped cushioning material is formed by superimposing oppositely two sheets of laminated films the fusion temperatures of inner and outer surfaces of which are different, dividing in a form of rectangle by means of welding by plural first and second rectangular sealing lines 5, 6, connecting continuously its inside in two dimensions to form air bags 10, and it is used by dividing in required size and shape along a perforated line M perforated in the second sealing line 6 corresponding to an article to be packed.
The first sealing line is formed lengthwise by means of roller-heating when the cushioning material is produced, and the second sealing line is formed wide accompanying with a strap-shaped non-sealed area between two parallel sealing lines, and a perforated line M is formed in the non-sealed area.
However, as a heat-fusible film used for the cushioning material of this type is used a laminated film having no directional property formed by laminating films having no directional property in order to give uniform strength in all directions of the laminated film. Therefore, when tearing the cushioning material of this type from its side edge in the direction of the arrow A along the perforated line, there occurs frequently a case where the tearing portion B departs from the perforated line, thereby tearing an air bag. And accordingly, tearing work must be carried out carefully and cautiously.
Furthermore, since volume reduction work has been required after opening a package in order to reduce the bulk of the cushioning material in which each of the air bag is punctured by a tip of, for example, ball-point pen and the like to press air out of the air bag, the work takes a lot of time and is poor efficient; such properties and defects are true for the tube-shaped cushioning material.
According to this invention, there is provided a tube-shaped or mat-shaped cushioning material in which air bags can be cut off easily without recourse to perforated line, thereby making the packaging-charging work efficient and carrying out easily the volume-reducing work after opening a package by similar operation.
According to this invention, there is provided a cushioning material having air bags divided and continuously connected by rectangular first and second sealing lines, in which a cutout making serve a double purpose of cutting off and tearing is formed continuously or at a given space in at least one side edge of a film constituting the cushioning material or at least one side of a rectangular air bag, thereby performing each of cutting-off of the air bag at the time of the packing operation and the volume reduction operation at the time of opening a package, continuously.
According to a first aspect of this invention, there is provided a cushioning material made of heat-fusible laminated film comprising an air bag which is divided in a form of rectangle and continuously connected in a form of tube or mat, in which a cutout or V-shaped notch for tearing the air bag is formed continuously or in a given space to at least one side edge of the laminated film.
According to a second aspect of this invention, there is provided a cushioning material made of heat-fusible laminated film comprising an air bag which is divided in a form of rectangle and continuously connected in a form of tube or mat, in which a tearing cutout or V-shaped notch is formed continuously or in a given space to at least one side of the air bag.
In the invention of the second aspect of this invention, the cutout or V-shaped notch itself may be formed by a perforated line.
According to a third aspect of this invention, there is provided a cushioning material made of heat-fusible laminated film comprising an air bag which is divided in a form of rectangle and continuously connected in a form of tube or mat, in which one of rectangular sealing lines dividing the air bag is formed by two parallel sealing area putting a non-sealed area between them and a V-shaped notch making serve a double purpose of separating and tearing the air bag is formed in the non-sealed area.
In the invention of the third aspect of this invention, the cutout or V-shaped notch itself may be formed by a perforated line.
According to this invention, when a cutout making serve a double purpose of cutting off and tearing is formed to at least one side of the rectangle-shaped air bag, serrated cutouts or V-shaped cutout (notch) may be perforated in a part or whole area of the non-sealed area in the sealing line with or without a perforated line.
The terminology xe2x80x9ccutoutxe2x80x9d used herein means a single or serrated cutout of straight cutout and V-shaped cutout (notch).